Light at the end of the Tunnel pt 1
by Rosencrantz
Summary: Events in the Morlock community as seen by a member of them


  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Marvel. Lyrics belong to Metallica. Morriden is mine. It's all good.  
All comments and criticisms can be sent to: rosencrantz@rosesmail.com  
Summary: Various events in the morlocks from the eyes of a member of them.  
  
This story is rated PG  
  
  


Light at the end of the tunnel  
  
By Rosencrantz

  
  
  
  
_By the last breath of the fourth winds blow   
Better raise your ears   
The sound of hooves knock at your door   
Lock up your wife and children now   
It's time to wield the blade   
For now you have got some company_   
  
  
"Wait up! Goin to see the pretty-pretties Morriden?" yelled the small girl running through the tunnel.  
  
"No Sarah. I'm just looking for something I lost yesterday," stated the tall boy as he reached down to pick up the girl.  
  
"Oh, was it 'portant?" she asked, brushing a piece of pink hair out of her face.  
  
"A bit. It was something I found when I was scavenging. I guess I've lost it. Better than someone taking it from me I suppose..." He sighed as he turned to head back to the tunnels.  
  
As he carried Sarah back to the main area shouts and yells started to greet his attention. Carefully, he put down Sarah and went to check it out.  


  
  
_The horsemen are drawing nearer   
On the leather steeds they ride   
They have come to take your life   
On through the dead of night   
With the four horsemen ride   
Or choose your fate and die_

  
Callisto was fighting! Why!? And who was that white-haired women?  
  
"Scuse me, coming thru, Caliban! What's going on? And why are you holding that girl?" He called as he pushed his way to the tracker.  
  
"Sprite child hurt. Storm is fighting Callisto for ruling of Morlocks" Caliban quickly explained while not taking his eyes off the fight.  
  
Morriden relaxed somewhat as he watched it. Callisto was winning. That upworlder was going to die. Nothing would have to change and he wouldn't have to leave again. He rubbed his face in relief, feeling the rock/bone like protrusion that accented all the curves of his face. He wasn't the ugliest of Morlocks. Nor was he even approaching normal. Tall and thin with grey/blue skin and black/blue hair he cut an interesting picture. One he tried quite hard to hide from others. He had only been a part of the Morlock community for a little while. He was not going to allow it to be jeopardized by it being usurped by some stranger.  
  
"Caliban, who is Storm?"  
  
"Storm is weathergoddess. Caliban is worried for her. She is fighting Callisto to the death"  
  
"Great, wonderful. Why are you worried for the upworlder, Caliban" The word upworlder was said with an unusual amount of venom.  
  
"Storm is Caliban's friend. That is why he worries for her," was the simple reply.  
  
"Whatever. Heh. Cal just cut her face. Not long now"  
  
"Caliban thinks Morriden takes too much happiness from this"  


_  
You have been dying since the day You were born You know it has all been planned   
The quartet of deliverance rides   
A sinner once a sinner twice   
No need for confession now   
Cause now you have got the fight of your life_

"I will hate any who threaten Callisto. Remember that" He said in a quiet voice. It hurt him slightly to be cruel to child-like Caliban. But if it came to it, he would willingly kill him. Not that it would. Morriden was considered weak by Morlock standards. He was nothing but a scavenger and one who watched over children. Powerless and young he was little more than dead weight the majority of the time. Not to mention almost always managing to get lost. For some reason he kept coming out of the wrong tunnels when he was heading somewhere completely different.

  
Cries from the rest of the people brought him back to the present. He turned to look in time to see Callisto get stabbed in the heart.  
  
As one the crowd yelled. Most in anger. And some, shockingly, cheered. Morriden watched with a feeling of illness as Callisto fell slowly to the ground...  
  
With an almost audible wrench he turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the fight. Hopefully, for once he would get lost permanently in the tunnels. As he ran, he heard the monster who had killed Callisto declare herself leader of the Morlocks...  
  
_"Run, run. Find somewhere else... Gone, gone. Never to be seen again..."_ Were the sad words that ran through his head.  
  


_The horsemen are drawing nearer   
On the leather steeds they ride   
They have come to take your life   
On through the dead of night   
With the four horsemen ride   
Or choose your fate and die  
_

  
Faster he went until it was mostly a blur. Or it could have been the tears in his eyes. He thought he had found a place. One that would not be destroyed. And now that beast ruined that. _ What gave her the right!? She did not live here! She was beautiful... And, he decided, hideous. Destroyer. Killer. Upworlder._  
  
Unexpectedly he emerged into a lit area. Specifically, a very familiar area. He had returned to the Alley.   
  
"B-b-but, I couldn't have run in a circle... I was going straight!" He yelled.  
  
"Tovarisch. What are talking about?" questioned a voice from behind him.  
  
Morriden quickly spun around to find himself face to chest with a man made of metal. Odd. He didn't remember this Morlock. Something crystalized in his head._ He was one of the upworlders!_ Slowly Morriden moved into what he assumed was a fighting stance.  
  
"Get out of the tunnels," he stated in a cold voice.  
  
"What is wrong with you? I have caused you no ill-will," petitioned the confused man.  
  
"Out!" Morriden cried while launching himself at him. Pity he didn't think what a head connecting quite forcefully with metal does to someone...  
  
_A couple of minutes later._  
  
"He's coming to. Colossus, what did you do to him!?"  
  
"Nothing Kurt. He hit himself"  
  
"He... hit himself?"  
  
"Da. Did he not hear Storm's announcement?"  
  


_Time   
Has taken its toll on you   
The lines that crack your face   
Famine   
Your body it has torn through   
Withered in every place   
Pestilence   
For what you have had to endure   
And what you have put others through   
Death   
Deliverance for you for sure   
There is nothing you can do_

  
  
"Leave!" He cries again, helplessly hitting the metal man (Colossus?). "You are not welcome here!"  
  
"I am their leader and Colossus and Nightcrawler may be here if it so pleases me." A strong regal voice said. Morriden looked up to see the woman, _Storm_, his memory supplied, standing above him. Her very look made him feel as if he was dirty and unworthy to be in her presence. So he did the only logical thing in this case. He tried to attack her as well.  
  
*Zzzzzt!* *Crack-Crooom!* Several rocks fell down from the force of the thunder that accompanied Storm's attack.  
  
"Augh!"  
  
"Storm! He's just a child!"  
  
"A child who is obviously not well mentally. If this is how the Morlocks have been raised under Callisto, then my coming is quite fortunate" Storm said, standing to her full height and readjusting her newly acquired leather jacket. "Piotr. Kurt said earlier that the Morlocks have a healer. Take the boy to him"  
  
"I will take him instead, Storm," replied Kurt as he scooped up the unconscious form of Morriden.  
  
__

So gather round young warriors now   
And saddle up your steeds   
Killing scores with demon swords   
Now is the death of doers of wrong   
Swing the judgement hammer down   
Safely inside armor blood guts and sweat  


  
"What happened to him?" Asked the healer.  
  
"He tried to fight Colossus and Storm. It wasn't even a fight..." Nightcrawler said guiltily, looking at the bruises and singe marks from Morriden's brief battle.  
  
"Poor boy. He cannot fight at all. I wonder what possessed him to do this?" The healer wondered, then after a bit he turned to Nightcrawler "If he's attacked once, he may do it again. It is probably best if you leave"  
  
"Ja, you're right." Said Kurt before *bamfing* out.  
  
"Healer, what is Morriden doing here? He was on a scavenging mission... Did he get attacked?" a rough voice questioned from the archway.  
  
"No Callisto. He was the one that attacked, apparently"  
  
"Morriden? Attack? I thought he knew better..." Wondered Callisto in surprise.  
  
"Apparently not. Can you watch over him mistress? I have other patients" Said the healer as he walked off.  
  
"Wake up boy. What did you do this time you silly brat." Callisto admonished shaking him.  
  
Morriden mumbled a bit but did not wake.  
  
__

The horsemen are drawing nearer   
On the leather steeds they ride   
They have come to take your life   
On through the dead of night   
With the four horsemen ride   
Or choose your fate and die

  
  
"You're alive!" He cried as he leapt from the cot that had been laying in for the past few days, recovering from his wounds.  
  
"This is news to you?" Said Callisto with a smirk as she suffered his hug. "That weatherwitch couldn't keep me down"  
  
"I thought you were killed... Does that mean she doesn't rule the Morlocks?" Morriden asked in a voice filled with hope.  
  
"No Morriden. The weatherwitch still rules." Callisto said with a tone of anger in her voice.  
  
Morriden drooped his head. "Oh" He slowly got up and left the healers area.  
  
Depression followed him like a cloud, he barely heard Tommy call a greeting to him. Something about meeting some new friends.  
  
He kept himself busy for weeks. Doing what he could not to think. Callisto still had authority over the Morlocks, but that monster still was the ruler. Even though she was never there. Slowly he felt what had originally just been extreme resentment grow into full-fledged hate. It grew whenever he heard of her. When Caliban lost Kitty Pryde again, he almost attacked once more.  
  
_Months later._  
  
  
Finally he was beginning to let go. Although it wasn't going to matter if he doesn't get out of the tunnels... He was lost again. He had been wandering through the tunnels for 7 hours looking for the Alley. He kept turning onto familiar routes and ending up somewhere else. It was getting very frustrating  
  
"Maybe if I hold the wall..." He said, suiting action to words. Placing his hand against the wall, he used it to help him stay on course.  
  
Slowly, the tunnels began to get more familiar. That's when he heard the screams. He started running and came out to the entrance to the alley. And almost face-to-face with a man as large as Sunder. He had fur which was matted with blood, all of him was covered in blood.  
  
"Well looky here. We missed one. Let's what your blood tastes like, freak" The creature said in a gravelly voice. With a smirk he suddenly leapt forward with claws out to tear out Morriden's throat.  
  
Morriden turned and ran as if his life depended on it, which it did, unfortunately he wasn't fast enough to avoid the claws completely and ended up with a deep gouge in his shoulder. Grunting in pain and with tears in his eyes he managed to stumble down a side tunnel.   
  
"Keep runnin' kid. I'll catch ya later" Called the monster as he killed a Morlock who had tried to take advantage of it's distraction.  
  
Morriden finally started crying when he realized he wasn't going to escape. Sinking against the wall he sobbed.  
  
"It's not fair. I never got a chance. I spent most of my time trying to find my way... Most times literally" He finished with a bit of grim humour.  
  
"There ya are kid. I've been lookin' for ya" Laughed the monster as it came out of a tunnel.  
  
Morriden stood up. If he was going to die, he didn't want it to be sitting and crying.  
"Die, monster"  
  
"The name's Sabretooth. And that's your job" With those words he raced at Morriden. And crashed into a wall. Where the boy had been moments earlier, there was thin air.  
  
"What the f---!?"  


  
**********

  
  
"Augh, if this is the afterlife, I think I want to consider reincarnation..." Groaned Morriden as he raised his head, ignoring how much it hurt his shoulder, and unexpectedly had it forced down again.  
  
"Hi. What are you doing here?" Said a heavily accented voice that belonged to a pair of slitted deep purple eyes. Morriden was disinclined to examine further due to the sword placed against his throat.  
  
"I hate those tunnels" he stated as he passed out.  


  
_The horsemen are drawing nearer   
On the leather steeds they ride   
They have come to take your life   
On through the dead of night   
With the four horsemen ride   
Or choose your fate and die_


End file.
